Easy, Healthy Homemade Nutella: 3 ingredients!

This Healthy Homemade Nutella needs only 3 ingredients and a blender or food processor to make! Made in 20 minutes, it is full of fibre, vitamins, minerals and more! Paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free and refined-sugar free!

Which nut butter would you say is your favourite?

In my opinion, their unique variations in flavour make all of them delicious, but if I had to pick one, I would go with cashew butter… which also happens to be considerably more expensive than other nut butters!😊

There is, however, one that exceeds the price of cashew butter: hazelnut butter.

As you probably know, hazelnuts are used in Nutella, but they make up only 13% of the popular chocolate spread. Want to know which is the most abundant ingredient?

Yep, you guessed it: sugar. First in the list of ingredients, it makes up a whopping 55% and is swiftly followed by oil.

On a camping trip once, some of my friends managed to devour an entire jar of Nutella between them – in one day!😲 That’s 412 grams of sugar. 412 grams of sugar. Four-hundred-and-twelve.

It was between four of them, so that’s 100g sugar each! Consider the fact that the maximum amount of added sugar you should consume in a day is 25 grams, and… well, that’s 4 times the amount, already! Sometimes a whole jar of Nutella is what it takes to re-fuel after a long hike in the woods, right?😉

Now let’s compare that to if it had been the same amount of this healthy homemade Nutella:

65 grams of sugar. Shared between four people, that’s 16 grams of sugar each – two thirds of the recommended sugar intake! Not only does it contain 6 times less sugar than an equal amount of Nutella, this healthy homemade replica uses honey. Honey is a healthier and less processed form of sugar, with many health benefits!

A while back, my attempt to make almond butter ended up looking like burnt mashed potato (can you burn mashed potato? I’ll get back to you on that one), and tasting like…well, burnt mashed potato. This was because I didn’t keep on blending it until the natural oils were released, which would’ve produced a smoother, creamier nut butter. I had been quite reluctant to continue with it, as I had to keep stopping my Nutri Ninja every few seconds to tip the container backwards in order to dislodge the lump of mushed almond that kept sitting underneath the blade.

Moving that memory aside, the other day I was given some hazelnuts for free! So what did I do with them? I made hazelnut butter, of course!

Once again, I attempted it using the Nutri Ninja, which first of all broke the hazelnuts into what looked like breadcrumbs or ground almonds, within about 10 seconds. Then I realised that I could use our other blender which allows you to control the speed, and I wouldn’t have to keep tipping the container up. It worked really well that I was able to grind them to crumbs in the Ninja first, then finish the rest in the other blender…

After 2 minutes in the other blender at a low speed:

Then after another couple of minutes:

The motor didn’t seem to be under any strain, it just gradually continued to break down the hazelnuts until a smooth butter was formed.

Finally (after a total of 7 minutes blending):

You can leave it as hazelnut butter if you like, or add cocoa powder and maple syrup (or honey) for healthy homemade Nutella! Some water may be needed to help it along, as well as an optional pinch of salt for added flavour, and that’s it!

Although it seems like a lot of effort (which is why I hadn’t properly tried to make a nut butter before), it was in fact very easy – especially if you have a food processor, or a blender like I used. If you don’t have hazelnuts, or they are too expensive, you can of course use any nut of choice! Bear in mind that different nuts may add hints of varying flavours. For example, peanuts will add more of a dominant flavour than almonds or cashews would.

If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can mix some cocoa powder and maple syrup (or honey) with a ready-made (natural 100% nut, if possible) nut butter of choice, for the same effect!

This healthy homemade Nutella can be stored for up to 5 weeks in the fridge – although I guarantee it won’t last that long! Use it on toast, crackers, or heat it in a pan and add milk for a chocolate nut sauce. Dip fruit into it, or even use as a rich chocolate frosting for cakes!

Made in under 10 minutes with only 3 (to 5) ingredients and SO much healthier than store-bought chocolate spread! This is definitely something I will be making again – and you should, too!

This Healthy Homemade Nutella needs only 3 ingredients and a blender or food processor to make! Made in 20 minutes, it is full of fibre, vitamins, minerals and more! Paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free and refined-sugar free!

Ingredients

•200 g hazelnuts (or other nut of choice) *

•2 - 4 tbsp (15g - 30g) cocoa powder

•3 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)

•(optional) 1/4 tsp salt

•(if too thick, to help blend) 2 - 5 tbsp water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray in one layer, then place in oven for 10 - 15 minutes, until the outsides are dark brown.

Remove from oven, let cool a little, then using a towel or kitchen roll, rub the hazelnuts so that the shells flake away. Once all the shells have been rubbed off (don't worry if there are still some brown specs on some of the hazelnuts), place them in the blender and leave until the hazelnuts are completely cooled.

Blend on medium speed to grind them down to what looks like bread crumbs or almond flour.

Keep blending on a slow-medium speed, stopping to scrape down the sides a bit every so often if necessary.It will gradually form a cookie dough consistency, so keep blending until it eventually becomes a smooth nut butter with a glossy sheen. (You can do a little happy dance here - you've just made hazelnut butter!)

Stop the blender and add the cocoa powder, maple syrup/honey, and optional pinch of salt. Blend until mixed in - you will probably need to add up to 4 tbsp water to help it blend more easily, or add more for a runnier chocolate spread.

Transfer to a jar, and store in fridge for up to 5 weeks!

Notes

*The amount doesn't matter too much, as long as you can fit it in your blender! Then add the other ingredients to suit your taste, from there.

Like this:

Related

Hi! I'm Katie! Welcome to Katrina's Clean Cooking, where you will find lots of healthy, scrumptious recipes.
I’ve always enjoyed cooking and baking (as well as eating!), so began experimenting with food in the kitchen. Having developed quite a collection of recipes, I decided it would be good to share them with other people!
See you around! x